Medical testing lab slated for south Edmonton
Enormous facility to replace eight smaller sites scattered around city
A parcel of provincial land near the University of Alberta’s south campus has been chosen as the site for a massive, high-tech medical testing lab scheduled to open in 2022, the provincial government announced Thursday.
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said the facility will become the new central hub for processing more than 80 per cent of the medical tests in the Edmonton region, while also serving as a training and research centre for innovations in diagnostics.
“Improvements in how these tests will be processed will increase efficiency and speed, which leads to better health outcomes,” Hoffman told a news conference at University of Alberta Hospital.
“It will reposition Alberta’s lab services for the future.”
The government did not reveal a projected cost for the facility, a strategy Hoffman said was deliberate to ensure construction bids are as low as possible.
A preliminary Alberta Health Services estimate from last year pegged the project’s price tag at about $325 million. So far, the government has committed $20 million over the next two years to put toward planning, design and initial site work.
A request for proposals to build the lab has already been launched, Hoffman said, adding that construction is expected to be fully underway sometime in 2019.
Soccer fields currently occupy the laboratory site, which lies between 113 Street and the South Campus LRT station, and south of the Neil Crawford Centre.
The facility is expected to house about 800 employees at peak times, so a new parkade will also be required as part of the project.
Some pathologists and researchers had called for the lab to be built close to the U of A hospital complex, but health leaders eventually decided that wasn’t a feasible option.
Dr. Michael Mengel, AHS’s clinical department head of laboratory services for the Edmonton zone, said the new facility will be the drop-off point for millions of samples brought in from community collection sites all around Edmonton and northern Alberta.
As such, from a transportation standpoint, south campus has considerable advantages over the University hospital area that is already plagued by high traffic loads and lack of parking.
Alberta Health Services CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said the new facility will be “unique in Canada” in its integration of clinical, research and teaching functions.
The project will consolidate eight smaller sites operating in the Edmonton region, many of which are stretched for space. This includes the central lab currently operated by DynaLife on 102 Street downtown.
Yiu said such integration will allow for tests to be processed more quickly and cost effectively, which will lead to shorter wait times for patients and health professionals.
The lab will have the capacity to accommodate a greater volume of tests, while also providing the opportunity to introduce new hightech, specialized diagnostics — such as genetic testing — that are currently outsourced.
As well, dedicated research space will help academics develop their diagnostic innovations into marketable products that can put to use in the health system, Yiu said.
In addition to announcing plans for the lab facility, Hoffman also unveiled her government’s decision that management of all lab services in the province will be operated by a new subsidiary of AHS beginning next year.
The decision ends a long period of uncertainty over lab services dating back to 2015, when AHS was set to sign a $3-billion deal to have a private company build a new lab facility and manage virtually all medical testing in the Edmonton region
Hoffman abruptly ended that initiative and instead set on a course to create a single, publicly run lab services system for the province. As part of the plan, AHS announced last year that it would take over DynaLife’s operations by 2022.